For months after his sister was killed in a horrific highway crash, Jesse Mallen found solace in photographs of the family he had lost.
Then one of those photographs stared back at him from a TV screen – not in a tribute, but instead used as ammunition in a political attack campaign.
The image shows Mallen’s sister, Lynnea Soposki, her husband Luke and their red-haired one-year-old son, Logan.
All three were killed on April 11, when a semi-truck slammed into their pickup truck on a highway north of Columbus, triggering a nine-vehicle pileup and engulfing their vehicle in flames.
Now, as the family prepares for the truck driver’s criminal trial, their private tragedy has been weaponized in one of Ohio’s fiercest political battles.
The ad, titled ‘Dangerous for Ohio,’ was sponsored by the National Republican Senatorial Committee and authorized by the campaign of Republican Senator Jon Husted, who is running against former Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown.
‘Sherrod Brown opened our borders to dangerous illegals – the consequences were deadly,’ the narrator declares, before showing the truck driver, the Soposki family and harrowing footage of the crash.
For Mallen, the sight was unbearable. ‘Our grief is not raw material for a campaign,’ he wrote after the commercial began appearing repeatedly across Ohio.
Lynnea Soposki, 36, her analytical chemist husband Luke, 37, and baby Logan died on April 11, in a nine-car crash on I-71 northbound in Delaware County around 6.30pm
The commercial titled ‘Dangerous for Ohio,’ which ran repeatedly across Ohio this month features a photograph of Lynnea Soposki , her husband and their son alongside images of the truck driver accused in the crash and horrifying footage of the scenes
For Jesse Mallen – Soposki’s brother, it was his worst nightmare repackaged as a campaign message
Mallen, 40, said in an interview that he contacted the Husted campaign by email and certified mail last week, pleading with officials to stop using his family’s photograph.
He said no one had sought permission from the family – and that, had they been asked, they would have refused.
‘What we all want is to be able to grieve in peace and privacy,’ Mallen said. ‘For our family to be used in such a classless way by a politician, especially without being consulted.’
Now the man accused of causing the crash, 50-year-old Modou Ngom, is awaiting trial in September.
He has pleaded not guilty to three counts of aggravated vehicular homicide and four counts of vehicular assault involving survivors of the pileup.
He is being held in Delaware County jail.
The Soposki estate has also filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Ngom and his trucking company.
But the case has become entangled in a much larger political fight over immigration.
The ad was paid for by the National Republican Senatorial Committee and authorized by the campaign of Senator Jon Husted, who is running against former Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat.
After a week of silence from the campaign, Mallen said his family felt they had no choce but to go public. Though he has supported Democrats in the past, he firmly stated the decsision was not based on personal politics but on the certainty that his sister would not want to appear in any political ad
The Ohio Department of Public Safety said shortly after the crash that Ngom entered the United States in the 1990s and later used multiple names and dates of birth to obtain state and federal identification. The state referred its investigation to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
However Ngom has not been charged with an immigration-related crime.
The Department of Homeland Security has said Ngom became a naturalized US citizen in 2015.
His attorney has argued that public statements about his immigration history could prejudice his right to a fair trial.
Yet for Mallen, the issue is not partisan.
He said he has supported Democrats in the past but insisted that politics had nothing to do with his objection. His sister, he believes, would never have wanted her image used to endorse or attack any political cause.
After receiving no response from the Husted campaign for a week, the family went public.
Mallen began posting about the advertisement on Facebook and Reddit, where his message quickly spread. By then, the commercial had reportedly run for at least 16 days, with an estimated $1 million spent on the campaign.
The man accused of causing the crash, 50-year-old Modou Ngom, is awaiting trial in September. He has pleaded not guilty to three counts of aggravated vehicular homicide and four counts of vehicular assault involving survivors of the pileup
‘Dr. Soposki was an extraordinary veterinarian, a compassionate caregiver, and a deeply valued member of our team’ Muirfield Animal Hospital, the clinic where Lynnea worked, said in a Facebook post. ‘We know this loss will be felt not only within our clinic, but throughout our entire community’
The couple are being remembered as a kind couple who loved being parents to their one-year-old son, Logan
The ad has since apparently been replaced, but footage remains online and has been viewed more then 5 million times.
The Republican Senatorial Committee defended the campaign, saying Brown supported policies that had put Ohioans at risk and that Republicans would continue holding him accountable.
Brown’s campaign declined to comment directly, instead pointing to an analysis finding no evidence connecting Brown’s votes to the crash.
Meanwhile, the Soposki family has been forced to watch strangers relive their darkest day between television programs.
Friends and relatives say they have been flooded with messages from Ohioans who repeatedly encounter the commercial.
‘Just unbelievable what these politicians will do,’ Luke’s father, Joseph Soposki, wrote after learning about it. ‘Absolutely no compassion for the family.’
